Enjablog

QOTD: “It seemed to me they based some of their decisions on the word of — and the allegations — by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble — that means not tell the truth.” –W

LOTD: PostSecret

*5 points to the first person to place the reference. 5 points to Ian for coming up with it (And disqualifying him from getting the other 5 points).

You know who you are,
Thank you.

LOTD: Memorial Day
QOTD from a bumper sticker: “I may be slow, but I’m ahead of you!”

The Riots of the Faithful - The Ornery American: Orson Scott Card on the “uncorroborated allegation about American interrogators flushing Qurans down the toilet in order to get fanatical Muslim prisoners to talk…”

If you like Card’s work, take a look at this article. It certainly made me think twice about him. I couldn’t pick out a good quote to paste in… You kind of have to read the whole thing to get the full impact.

I got a postcard from my brother. He’s in Paris. Ok, well he was when the postcard was sent. So cool. :) -j.

Just Finished: Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton - Geektastic. I laughed… I cried… I geeked out. It’s a quick, fun read.
Up Next: The Art of War by Sun Tzu - My boss told me to read it. I guess I should start listening to him.

While I was at work today, there were some guys working on the new secure room which is straight down the hall from my office. As I was working, out of the corner of my eye, I see a gargantuan person. Now, I know Ian is tall, but this person’s head was inches from the ceiling. It looked like he was going to bump his head, not on the doorframe, but on the ceiling. Which is why I had to turn and look to see what was going on. They were putting up some reinforcements in the ceiling so people wouldn’t be able to break into that space from above. In any case, when I looked over, I saw that they didn’t hire a giant to do this one task. They gave an average, everyday shorty a pair of stilts. It was like the circus had come to work. They even had someone sitting in a chair in the middle of the hallway to supervise in case he needed help or fell over or something. At least that’s what I assume she was doing.

Then, on my way home from work, I saw a handful of police cars. One of these troopers I saw flying past me in the separated HOV lanes and I swear he had arrested a teddy bear. I only had a few seconds to look, and there’s no way I could have caught up to him without bringing attention to myself (though, with the barrier, what could he really do?), but I saw a stuffed animal situated in the back of the car such that it was looking out the window. It was probably sitting on the armrest of the door or something. But… why?

In other news, Va. Won’t Pay for Viagra For Violent Sex Offenders:

“Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) signed an emergency order Thursday that prohibits the Virginia Medicaid program from paying the costs of Viagra and other prescription erectile dysfunction drugs for 52 men registered as violent sex offenders.”

On the one hand, I’m appalled that this happened. On the other hand, I can understand, with the number of different organizations this information would have to come from, how this could have gone without consideration. Glad they’re being quick about doing something about it. And, yes… It should apply for all sex offenders, not just the violent ones. I guess unless they have shown that they have reformed. Opinions?

LOTD: Gumwall — Is it art? Is it vandalism? One thing’s for sure: It’s gross.

QOTD (totally out of context, of course…): “You look 100…” -GWB to a healthy-looking 70-year-old woman (1:50-2:25)

Study: 20M licensed drivers may lack basic safety knowledge - May 27, 2005: “According to the study, many drivers find basic practices, such as merging and interpreting road signs, difficult.

For instance, one out of five drivers doesn’t know that a pedestrian in a crosswalk has the right of way, and one out of three drivers speeds up to make a yellow light, even when pedestrians are present, the study said.”

“Bottom five states for driver knowledge:
1. Rhode Island
2. Massachusetts
3. New Jersey
4. New York
5. Washington D.C.”

I guess you need to conduct a scientific study to reliably show something, but this all sounds consistent with anecdotal evidence. I’m kind of surprised California isn’t in the top five because of LA though and that Rhode Island is, but the rest is pretty expected. I guess the size of California would even their numbers out. In any case, safety first. :) -j.

FYI, I may be looking for a new job in the near-ish future. Yeah, I know… I’ve been “looking” for a new job for like the last 6 months. This time, I actually mean it. Chances are pretty good I’ll stay where I am. But for my own growth, I think I need to update my resume a bit and poke around some. I was thinking about this on my 75-minute drive home today (left the office at 7:15pm. Why was there still traffic?), and realized that I know someone who’s a somebody at almost every big company in my industry in this area. And yet, I’m still debating whether this is what I want to do.

Career ideas welcome. Things I have rejected so far: joining the circus and tech support. Everything else is fair game. Thanks! :) -J.

I am on a certain email distribution as a representative for my family. As such, I receive these emails and forward as relevant to our situation. This list consists of 261 email addresses (yeah, I tallied it up today). Proper etiquette would dictate that a list this size should be used for its intended purpose and for nothing else: Disseminate relevant information, not jokes, feel-good forwards, or support for your personal agenda (i.e. “Don’t watch the news. It will make you sad.”). Common sense would also tell you that, instead of sending emails by CCing everyone, you should BCC them so when the stupid people on the list get viruses, they don’t get sent out to everyone.

I have asked the moderators of this list on numerous occasions to do this. I explained spam and viruses. I even chose an opportune time to send one email after they had to send out notifications to people about a virus that had previously been sent out. Then, after letting me know that they weren’t as computer-savvy (huh… I would never have guessed) as they “used to be” (wow… that is surprising), I sent detailed instructions on how to select BCC. Still, they apparently don’t think this is important.

Now, there have been a couple occasions where they asked for feedback and, surprise surprise, people clicked “reply-to-all” and a discussion ensues for the rest of the day. And for people who don’t obsessively check their email all day long, they come home to find a couple dozen emails from this list. Yay.

After the last debacle, they sent an email to someone asking her not to reply to all and that there were some people who were not interested in receiving all these emails. All of which could have easily been prevented if they would just not send everyone’s email out with each announcement. But no. Yell at other people for doing what they want when you just as easily go along doing what you want.

Today (yes, of course something happened today to get me all riled up again), we receive an email from someone upset about something and wanting input from others. The replies come rolling in… For the next seven hours. At which point, there’s a reply from those in charge, obviously agitated that this person had sent out unauthorized information, which may or may not have been skewed by her personal opinions.

They are, again, upset that people are sending out information that doesn’t go through them first. They are, again, having to send out disclaimers and clarification because people are getting worked up about the previous email and they’re getting the brunt of it. They are, again, at fault because they let this distribution list get out by sending it to everyone each time they had an announcement. Honestly, people. What did you expect to happen?

EDIT: I am so pleased to announce that as of the last email, they have finally figured out that difficult BCC function. She was unable to do it before because it wasn’t available as an option for her email. But when she uses aol.com, which “must have a more up to date version,” she can do it. She also received a virus in her email today. Surprise. I think this debacle has made them appreciate the reach of that mailing list. Too bad no one ever listens to me… ;) -Less Than Nothing

LOTD: Ask the Pope (May be blasphemous to some.)

Saturday, went over to the parents’ place for a “party” in celebration of Lenny’s graduation. There was a less than entertaining family fight. Not as spirited as usual, but, again, like Thanksgiving, it may have been because the whole family wasn’t together. In any case, there was lots of food and quantity family time.

Afterward, went with Yenny, Lenny, Ian, and Squidgey to see Unleashed. Weird movie. Good, but strange. Hung out with Ian for a bit after and watched last week’s Numb3rs. Happened to see this article in the Post today. Yay math! Finished reading Cat’s Cradle. Also strange. Very cool though. Haha cool… I didn’t even mean it like that, but now I wish I had.

Anyway, Sunday started Just a Geek and hung out with Ian and his family for dinner. Listened to The Big Broadcast for a little while after dinner and then headed back. A pretty lazy Sunday overall.

QOTD: “As a youngster Lenny was an avid soccer player, now he just takes advantage of the youth at church.” Uhh…

LsOTD from Squidgey: puppywar and kittenwar

Emergency Petition to Save the Courts:

This Tuesday, the Senate will vote on Republican Leader Bill Frist’s “nuclear option” to break the rules of the Senate and give the Republican Party absolute control over appointing federal judges.

For 200 years the minority’s right to filibuster has kept our courts fair, by making sure that federal judges needed to get at least some support from both sides of the aisle before they were given life time appointments.

If Frist eliminates the filibuster, his next step would be to force far right partisan judges onto the powerful U.S. Courts of Appeals. The real targets, however, are the four seats on the Supreme Court likely to become vacant in the next four years.

With that much power on the Supreme Court, the far right could strike down decades of progress on labor rights, environmental protections, reproductive rights, and privacy.

Star Wars sparks US political storm:

“The new Star Wars film is causing a political storm in the United States, with one group calling for a boycott of the film, which they say is unpatriotic.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith includes a scene in which Darth Vader tells his former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi that he is either with him or against him.

Some US activists are comparing Darth Vader’s actions to those of President George W Bush in persuading legislators to adopt the Patriot Act.”

Baked a cake for Lenny’s graduation celebration thing today. Went for a strawberries and cream cake (without the cream part), a strawberry whipped topping, and blackberries on top.

Now, for the adventure part… I will start closer to the beginning of my day. Went to Bombay Bistro for lunch with my family and Lenny’s gf. After that, we parted ways and planned to meet back up to go over to the ceremony together. Went with Yenny to Wegman’s to get free groceries and cake supplies. I had originally planned to bake cupcakes so I could decorate beforehand, but later realized that would defeat the purpose since my grandmother only likes the non-edge pieces of cake and a cupcake would essentially be all edge. Anyway, got stuff, went home, took nap.

Went to Lenny’s graduation. Congressman Wolf spoke. Apparently, he uses the same speech for all the graduations at which he speaks. Kind of expected, but kind of funny since he also spoke at Lenny’s girl’s graduation a few years ago. Anyway, hung out for a little after for the reception and to take pictures. Then, off to acquire a house for my sister.

9pm: Realized that I needed a mixer to make a cake. Yeah, I know… You’d think with all the baking I do, I would have these kinds of supplies. You would be wrong. In any case, Yenny needed to go over to Squidgey’s mom’s office to get her paperwork done.

11pm: Borrow a mixer from Squidgey’s mom. She’s looking around for her mixer and the two beaters that attach to it… Finds the body of it, but only one of the beaters. She also offers me a hand blender doober. Well, that will have to do…

12am: Get home, get started mixing together ingredients. Start spraying things everywhere with the super-powered one-beater mixer (Ok, not really… It was all contained within the bowl, but only because the bowl had tall sides.). Apparently, the balance that is achieved from using two beaters in a standard mixer is for a reason and the power supplied is distributed evenly between the two such that there are different speeds available for use. Because I was missing that second beater, I had to stick with the lowest setting and only used it briefly so as to avoid making a mess. It did what I needed it to though, so that was good.

12:30am: Remember that the recipe is for a 3-layer round cake. I didn’t even think about the conversion to a rectangular pan until I was almost done with the batter and saw how much there was. Call my sister in a hurry and she came over with her cake pan so I could make two cakes (Yeah, I only have one cake pan as well. I just bought three 8-inch rounds 2 weeks ago, but they’re at Ian’s.). This resulted in 2 thin cakes, but they’re about the right size for a layer cake. Unfortunately, I am not making a layer cake.

Also, frozen strawberries should be thawed before use. Yeah, S-M-R-T.

LOTD: baby wear
QOTD by the mean guy at the Uptown: “I know every cop on the beat.”

Strawberries and Cream Cake

INGREDIENTS:
* 2 3/4 cups cake flour
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 4 eggs
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup strawberries, pureed

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9 inch round cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar, gelatin and butter until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Mix flour and baking powder, and beat alternately with the milk into the sugar mixture. Fold in 1 teaspoon vanilla and pureed strawberries. Divide equally into three 9 inch round cake pans.
3. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then remove from pans and cool completely.

Note: Makes 2-layer half-sheet cake or a tall half-sheet cake.

Cool Whipped Frosting

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, combine pudding mix with milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping until no streaks remain. Spread evenly over cake.

Notes: Used strawberry flavor whipped topping (seasonal).

Went out after work to catch Star Wars at the Uptown with Ian, Mindless, and a bunch of his WestWing Gang with others. Definitely better than the last two. There was a fair share of cheesy lines, especially in the scenes attempting to be romantic, but I think the good parts outweighed them.

*Spoilers*
Anakin turns to the Dark Side.
Padme got knocked up. *shocking*
Yoda kicks butt.
*End Spoilers*

And in other news, I got home to an email waiting for me… In response to this entry that the person found through Google, of course:

(Caution: There are some pictures on there that may not be suitable for some people at work.)
Aaron Dugo on a Friendster-type service.

Granted, that’s not actually him (I can only assume). But someone is doing a good job of advertising for him. And news to me: “He has a May 23rd court date.” Yes, folks. That’s Monday. Someone go hang out in court that day and find out how things go? Thanks. :)

QOTD from May 4 Washington Post Corrections: “Articles on April 25 and 26 about Pope Benedict XVI said that St. Peter was the founder of the Roman Catholic Church. According to the church, Jesus was the founder.”

LOTD from an NPR story last week: Typology Test Results — Go figure… I came out a liberal.

I’m actually keeping up with one of my New Year’s Resolutions! This is cool. Just finished The Bonesetter’s Daughter for book club next month. Back to reading Cat’s Cradle now. That’s book #6 so far and I also have Just a Geek lined up after that. Picked it up from the library today. Off I go!

QOTD via email:
“Name
Date of birth
Security Clearance
Nationality
Mail/Femail”

LOTD stolen from VHMPrincess — Ok, so I took this twice… The first time, I came out with Gluttony at 80% and died from diabetic coma. But the second one, I had to share:

This has been a weird week so far. Well, mostly stuff that happened last week, but I’m finding out about it/details today. Good news/Bad news kind of day. Former coworker got engaged. Former [college] classmate got engaged. Current coworker had “stress-related heart pains”, but is recovering well. Relative of a friend in a serious accident. Relative of a friend of a relative died this weekend.

In other news, my big brother and my roommate graduate this Friday. Congrats!

In other other news, my #2 big brother got booted from Ultimate Blogger. See that? That was me not linking them. So there.

GG Season Finale tonight: (Don’t worry. No spoilers) :O, *grumble*, aww, yay!, haha, what?!, grr, :O

And to close, some fluff… because we all need some fluff every now and then.

LOTD: Check out your Pink Profile (I am a bikini.)